Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On October 16, 2015, the German Parliament adopted a new data retention law requiring telecommunications operators and Internet service providers to retain customer Internet and phone usage data, including phone numbers, call times, IP addresses, and the international identifiers of mobile users (if applicable) for 10 weeks. The law requires user location data obtained in connection with mobile phone services to be retained for four weeks. Telecommunications and Internet service providers also are required to ensure that the retained data is stored within Germany.

The law now will be presented to the federal president. To become effective, it must be signed by the federal president and published in the Federal Law Gazette.